


two can play at this game

by lecornergirl



Series: forever just like this [5]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Capture the Flag, F/M, Percy is a Dork, Percy is oblivious, don't even ask me about where on the timeline this goes because i do not know, i guess??, it's mostly canon compliant but also time isn't real
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 10:24:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20691956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lecornergirl/pseuds/lecornergirl
Summary: The thing is, she’s fairly sure it’s not just other people’s feelings that Percy is oblivious to, but also his own. Several Aphrodite kids have told her, off-hand, how surprised they are that he hasn’t asked her out yet. They have an eye for this kind of thing. But Annabeth knows Percy, and she’s pretty sure he’d be acting a lot more awkward around her if he was actually aware of his own feelings.





	two can play at this game

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first time writing for this fandom but i recently reread the PJO books and i am obsessed with how completely oblivious percy was for an extremely long time
> 
> percabeth was one of my very first ships so honestly it's a mystery how i haven't ended up here before

Annabeth has always known that Percy can be a little obtuse, sometimes. He doesn’t always see things that are staring him in the face, unless they’re physically in his face. Like that time everyone at camp watched Silena Beauregard and Beckendorf dance around each other for an entire summer, and the only people who were surprised when Beckendorf kissed her at the end of summer party were the two of them and Percy. He has excellent intuition when it comes to fighting and strategy, but not so much with the whole relationships thing.

It annoyed Annabeth at first, because she was tired of doing everything herself. But she’s turned it into a game of sorts.

The thing is, she’s fairly sure it’s not just other people’s feelings that Percy is oblivious to, but also his own. Several Aphrodite kids have told her, off-hand, how surprised they are that he hasn’t asked her out yet. They have an eye for this kind of thing. But Annabeth knows Percy, and she’s pretty sure he’d be acting a lot more awkward around her if he was actually aware of his own feelings.

Annabeth has promised herself she’ll tell him by the end of summer, about her feelings and about his too, if he still hasn’t figured it out. But in the meantime, she’s never been able to resist teasing him… so she’s turned it into a game. She lets herself be obvious around him. Sits a little too close at the campfire, holds on a moment too long when he pulls her up by the hand, grabs on to him when they’re in the forest and there’s an unexpected sound in the vicinity, someone stepping on a twig or a dryad going about her business. 

She’s had the best results with jealousy, though. It’s a miracle Percy hasn’t figured it out yet, honestly, because every time she talks to another guy he finds a reason to go somewhere else and tends to be snippy with her the next day. He’s a smart guy, but this seems to be a pattern he can’t connect. 

At tonight’s campfire, she’s sitting next to Connor Stoll, talking about a prank he’d pulled on the Apollo cabin with Travis. It sounds interesting enough, but Annabeth isn’t really listening. She’s watching the path to the cabins, waiting for Percy. She’d run into him on her way down, but he’d been going to his cabin for a shower before the campfire. She almost feels bad for ignoring Connor, but there are several younger Hermes kids on his other side, hanging on to his every word.

Percy appears when she isn’t looking, but she turns her gaze to him at almost the same moment he steps into the glow of the fire. If she was mortal, she’d probably wax poetic about fate, but as it is, she figures Aphrodite is probably bored and looking for a way to amuse herself for a moment. She knows Aphrodite had a chat with Percy a couple of years back, although he never did tell her the specifics of the conversation. He did turn a very bright red when she asked about it, though, mumbling something about an interesting life. 

Bathed in the firelight, he looks like a true hero. They’ve done a lot of heroic things together in the past few years, but usually in those situations they’re covered in varying degrees of blood and dirt. Standing at the edge of the amphitheater, in the golden glow of the flames, he looks like a hero from the stories, the kind they write songs about and immortalize in paintings. 

The expression on his face, however, is far from heroic. Connor, realizing she’s not listening to him, has grabbed Annabeth’s arm, about to reach the conclusion of his story. Percy’s eyes narrow on where Connor’s hand rests on her forearm, and he glares. Annabeth smiles at him, waving him over with her other arm, but Percy turns away and sits next to some of the Apollo kids, who are also glaring in Annabeth and Connor’s general direction.

Annabeth stopped keeping score a long time ago, but if she was still tracking, tonight would definitely be another point.

Capture the flag gets a little violent, which is by no means a rare occurrence.

The Poseidon and Athena cabins are on the same side, and they decide to have Percy and Annabeth lead separate offensive strikes. They’re two of the best fighters at camp; at least one of them is bound to make it through. 

Things get a little dicey right from the start, when they realize that Apollo cabin, leading the opposing team, has acquired exploding arrows for their bows. The first one goes off as soon as the first person approaches the boundary line, almost like a warning, and Annabeth sees some of the Hephaestus kids on the other side smirking.

“Guess we have to be sneakier,” Annabeth mutters to her team. A young Hecate kid looks pretty freaked, and she smiles reassuringly. “Don’t worry, Chiron’s pretty strict about the no intentional maiming rule. We’ll be fine, just try to stay out of sight.”

She looks at Percy, and he nods. “Careful out there,” he says, an intense look in his eyes.

“You too, Seaweed Brain,” she says, and half a smile flickers on his face before he turns to his team and starts leading them to the boundary line. Annabeth takes her team the opposite way, and they manage to stay out of sight for a while, at least based on the lack of exploding arrows in their immediate vicinity. 

Then there’s a scream, an explosion, and the crackle of rapidly spreading fire, all in very quick succession. Annabeth turns in the direction of the sound, and there’s already a thick plume of smoke rising some ways away. 

“Go tell Chiron,” she tells her strike force, even though he probably already knows, on account of all the smoke. Then she turns and runs towards the fire.

She knows Percy, so she fully expects to find him where the fire is, summoning the entirety of Long Island Sound to try to put it out. 

What she doesn’t expect is to see him by the fire, trying to summon the entirety of Long Island Sound but struggling due to what looks like half the shaft of an exploding arrow embedded in his arm. 

“Percy!” she cries out, running to his side. “You idiot, you’re in no condition to put the fire out.”

He tries to protest, but ends up stumbling instead. Annabeth catches him, tucking herself under his arm and supporting most of his weight as she starts to lead them out of the forest. Behind them, the fire still rages, but she can hear people running towards them, so it’s going to get handled. 

She leads Percy to the edge of the forest, where some Apollo kids have set up the usual first aid station. One of the campers rushes over to help her, but Annabeth glares at him. The arrow sticking out of Percy did, after all, belong to an Apollo kid. The would-be medic seems to notice this, and backs off, looking slightly terrified of Annabeth.

She settles Percy down on a bench and looks him over. He looks a little pale, but seems mostly fine, apart from the obvious. She hesitates for a moment, then grabs a pair of scissors from the first aid station and cuts his shirt off. 

“Hey,” Percy protests, “I like that shirt.”

“It’s a camp t-shirt,” Annabeth replies. “You have twelve others just like it. And I need to check the rest of you for damage.”

Honestly, since his shirt was mostly undamaged, she was pretty sure the skin under it was also fine, but. When else is she going to get a chance to literally cut his shirt off?

The wound isn’t as bad as it seemed in the forest. It looks like one of the exploding arrows exploded and half of the shaft broke off, ricocheting hard enough to hit Percy. It’s not very deep, though, and since there isn’t an arrowhead, the shaft is easy to pull out. 

“Sorry,” she says, “I don’t think you need ambrosia for this one. Don’t want to risk that whole bursting into flames thing. We’ll do this the old-fashioned way.”

Now that Percy has been sitting down for a minute and is no longer trying to summon the entirety of Long Island Sound, he already seems considerably better. “Are you going to nurse me back to health?” he asks, grinning.

“I’m going to pick a bunch of splinters out of your arm,” she says. “Watch yourself, Seaweed Brain, these tweezers are kind of sharp, I suggest you don’t distract me.”

Percy sits quietly as she works, and more than a few times Annabeth looks up to see him looking away, as if he didn’t want to be caught watching her. There’s a tension in the air, but she doesn’t say anything, just keeps picking at the tiny splinters. 

The wound really isn’t bad, and she’s done sooner than she’d like. Not that she wants Percy to be seriously injured, but she doesn’t want to step away, either. She wraps a bandage around his arm and looks up.

“All done,” she says, trying to keep her voice bright.

He looks at her, holding eye contact for just a little too long, looking like he wants to say something. But he just smiles, says “thanks, Annabeth,” and walks off towards his cabin, probably to go put on an identical camp t-shirt.

Percy is talking to Katie Gardner, and Annabeth is not happy. 

There’s a reason Percy is talking to Katie Gardner. Poseidon and Demeter are on the same side for capture the flag this week, and Athena is on the other side, so it makes perfect sense for two head counselors to be talking strategy. 

But he doesn’t have to look like he’s enjoying it quite so much.

Percy walks away from Katie and heads over to Annabeth.

“Hey,” he says.

“Have fun with Katie?” she snaps, and the ice in her voice surprises even Annabeth herself.

“Uh,” Percy says, sounding extremely confused. “I guess? I mean, we were just talking about capture the—wait, is this just you trying to get me to tell you our strategy?”

Annabeth rolls her eyes. “No, Seaweed Brain, I don’t need to know your stupid strategy.”

“Annabeth, are you okay?” Percy asks, but she’s already walking away. 

She makes it all the way down to the beach, but she knows Percy is following her. 

“Annabeth, hey,” he says, catching up to her just as she reaches the edge of the water. In hindsight, it seems a little ridiculous that she stormed off to the ocean, Percy’s literal home turf, but it’s too late to re-storm now. 

She sits down on the sand, a little embarrassed. She’s been making fun of Percy all summer for acting jealous when she talks to guys, and yet here she is, sulking over capture the flag planning.

Percy sits next to her, leaving no space between them. He leans back on his hands, one hand behind Annabeth so his arm is half around her. 

“Sorry for being weird,” Annabeth mutters.

“It’s okay,” Percy says. “Do you, uh, want to tell me what’s going on?”

Something in his tone, a trace of a grin, makes Annabeth look up and narrow her eyes. “Do you want to tell me what you think is going on?”

Percy smirks. “I’m pretty sure we both know what’s going on, but I bet Grover five drachmas that you’d say it first.”

Annabeth wants to be angry, she really does, but all she can do is laugh. “So all summer, when you’ve been acting all oblivious—”

“Yeah, I was just trying to make you admit it first.”

“You’re so ridiculous,” she says, trying to sound like she’s grumbling, but struggling not to laugh.

“It worked, didn’t it?” he asks. 

She doesn’t answer, just reaches over to kiss him. 

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he says, and she’s still laughing, because he’s ridiculous, but he’s her kind of ridiculous. 


End file.
